Written languages based on the evolved Chinese pictographic system, specifically modern Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, have certain intrinsic difficulties not only chronically in terms of learning rate, but more recently in terms of technological utilization. There are some fifty thousand chinese characters, each capable of representing either a word, a syllable, or some combination thereof. The vast majority defy any rational classification relating character linestroke composition to meaning, and even the remainder tax the skills of any taxonomist attracted to this field of research.
Only some 12,000 Chinese characters have been adequately classified for lexicographical purposes. Consequently, it is not surprising that many attempts have been made to adopt the orthographic system common to the West to replace the present pictographic system. However, because of the considerable cultural content of pictographic expression, these attempts have met with considerable resistance. Accordingly, it can safely be assumed that the present system will remain in place for the foreseeable future. This being the situation, it is indeed fortunate that only some three thousand Chinese characters are required for ordinary correspondence.
The only method of learning the 3000 or so characters required in ordinary writing is by memorizing each individual character, character by character. Although the sheer memory work required to master reading is a prodigious task in itself, it is further complicated by the exceptional calligraphic skills required to master written Chinese. As these two tasks are taught together: recognition and reproduction, the more difficulty acquired skill tends to slow the overall rate of learning.
While young children have surprisingly acute sound and symbol recognition skills, as evident from their ability to learn not only their native language but foreign languages almost from infancy, the adequate motor functions required for writing are not generally developed until later. Hence, if both skills are taught together, writing requirements tend to retard reading progress.
For the pictographic languages students must learn not only to recognize the various characters and commit to memory their assigned meaning, but must master the calligraphic skill of manually representing the characters. Each character comprises a series of linestrokes, generally between 7 and 15, but can range up to 36. Because the differences between characters can be very subtle, students must cope with exacting linestroke type, relative size and position, and linestroke intersection.
Considering the number of linestrokes required for a single character, learning the virtually unlimited number of Chinese characters is quite slow in comparison to comparable learning rates in the West with its limited number of orthographic characters each rarely requiring more than two linestrokes. Understandably, it generally takes roughly six years for students to master some 3000 characters at the rate of 500 to 600 each year.
As a consequence, mastering Chinese character reading and writing is slow. This is not necessarily because it depends on sheer memory power to master reading and exceptional calligraphic skills to master writing, but because these two skills are combined in learning the written language.
Another problem relating to the sheer number of Chinese characters is that they do not lend themselves to practical keyboard representation as required for technological utilization such as for commercial correspondence and business reports and particularly for newspaper and magazine composition at speeds necessary for mass distribution requirements.
Cumbersome typewriters have been developed with extended keyboards, some with several hundred keys to represent the most frequently occurring characters, but because of the large number of less common but still ordinarily required characters, even the largest of such mechanical devices require open keys onto which individual type from a nearby font can be manually secured. Nevertheless, because individual characters generally represent whole words rather than syllables, practical printing speeds comparable to alphanumeric typewriters have been achieved. However, such mechanical contrivances have reached their limit and of course were never suitable to a modern business office.
With the development of electronic typewriters and typesetters with word-processing capabilities, it would appear that some electronic scheme would appear to alleviate this problem, but this has not been the case. The fundamental problem remains: before electronic reproduction of the correct character, whether pictographic or orthographic, the character identification must be entered into the machine.
Because of the limited number of orthographic characters used in the West, rarely exceeding fifty, the simple manual alphanumeric keyboard arrangement is practical for computer keyboards. Consequently, Westerners are not only familiar with the alphanumeric keyboard, but contend that such a keyboard arrangement, or variations on it, are suitable for all other language and all other cultures.
Accordingly, all such schemes known to the applicant for entering Chinese characters on an electronic keyboard involve rearrangements and modifications of the Western alphanumeric keyboard. In this regard all such schemes are incompatible with pictographic language with its essentially unlimited number of characters because each alphanumeric key has an assigned character or combination of characters. Not surprisingly, all such keyboards, being based on Western alphabetic concepts, have failed in some measure.
Wang proposes a keyboard in which the pictographic characters are constructed from radical and phonetic elements, several such elements assigned to each key of an essentially western keyboard, with the shift key used for final selection.
Barnea et al proposes a keyboard in which the pictographic characters are constructed from line-strokes, several such line-strokes assigned to each key of an essentially western keyboard, with the shift key used for final selection.
Gornati proposes a keyboard in which the pictographic characters are constructed from sound and tone elements represented on keys grouped of keypads, each key and each keypad specifically identified by function.
Anadoliiski et al proposes a keyboard in which the pictographic characters are represented by hierarchical keypads to which specific priorities are assigned.
In each of these above examples the pedagogic discipline required in mastering pictographic language is significantly altered, limiting the practical application of these devices. Although Monroe et al proposes a means of electronic recognition of pictographic characters by identifiable constituents using a digitizing pad; essentially converting manually printed characters to electronic representations, the device operates no faster than the rate at which characters can be manually represented.
This limitation will remain as long as the Western alphanumeric keyboard is imposed upon those comfortable with pictographic expression and the sheer memory power required in mastering the Chinese characters. The objective of the present invention is an alternate keyboard arrangement compatible with pictographic expression and pedagogy, not with Western logic relating to proper alphanumeric keyboard arrangement.